PDAF Archives

Panasonic confirms PDAF is coming to MFT

Feb 27, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

In an interview with Yosuke Yamane, Panasonic’s Imaging and Business division director, Phototrend confirmed that Panasonic plans to implement phase detection autofocus into the Micro Four Thirds product line. According to Yamane, Panasonic now has “all the AF technologies” and will choose “the optimal autofocus method each time”.

This suggests that it may not be available on all future Micro Four Thirds cameras. There’s no word yet on exactly which bodies it will come to, though. PDAF was notably lacking from the Panasonic GH6, but I think it’s probably a safe bet to say that it will almost certainly be coming to the hypothetical Panasonic GH7 and whatever Panasonic eventually releases to replace the Panasonic Lumix G9.

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Panasonic says the reason PDAF took so long was to not compromise image quality

Jan 11, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

In an interview between Gizmomo Freaks and Panasonic during the launch of the recently announced Panasonic Lumix S5 Mark II and S5 Mark IIx, the obvious focus of attention was the addition of Phase Detect Autofocus into the new camera. Sure, PDAF isn’t the only thing the S5 Mark II holds over its predecessor, but this is the first Panasonic interchangeable lens mirrorless camera ever to have PDAF. So, it’s kind of a big deal.

Why did it take so long for Panasonic to implement it, though, while all of the competition had been using it for years? Well, in short, the official answer was that they didn’t want to compromise on image quality, and they felt that the technical limitations of how phase detection autofocus works would do exactly that. Now, though, technology appears to have come to a point where all that’s changed.

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What does Phase Detect autofocus mean for Panasonic’s future?

Jan 9, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

The Panasonic S5 Mark II announcement brought with it a big change of direction for Panasonic. One that Panasonic shooters (including myself) had been wanting for years. Finally, Panasonic has a mirrorless camera with Phase Detect autofocus. It seems that Panasonic has finally gotten around to addressing all of the complaints and issues users had with their DFD autofocus system, especially when shooting video.

But what does this mean for the future of Panasonic’s full-frame and Micro Four Thirds mirrorless lineup? This interesting video from Chris and Jordan at DPReview TV takes a look at this exact topic, discussing the benefits that PDAF brings to the S5 Mark II and what it could mean going forward.

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Is Panasonic finally going to give us phase detection autofocus in Lumix mirrorless cameras?

Nov 11, 2022 by John Aldred 5 Comments

Is Panasonic finally going to give us phase detection autofocus (PDAF) in their full-frame and Micro Four Thirds Lumix mirrorless cameras? Well… Maybe. This is one that seems to have skipped by most of us but last month, Panasonic announced a new PTZ camera. Now, we do cover PTZ cameras occasionally, like the Insta360 Link and that crazy Sony Cinema PTZ camera we saw at IBC 2022 in September, but mostly they’re kinda boring.

This one, though, the imaginatively titled Panasonic AW-UE160W/K features something new. At least, it’s something new for Panasonic. Phase detection autofocus. Ordinary Filmmaker spotted this and put a video together going over his thoughts on what this might mean for the future of Panasonic mirrorless cameras.

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